1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to digital image data processing; and, more particularly, it relates to digital image printing.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional digital image printing systems, in that they commonly employ parallel image data processing to image data throughout the digital image printing system, inherently require a significant dedication of real estate within its integrated circuitry. For example, for a digital image printing system that can accommodate a wide variety of image data having varying data sizes. In addition, depending on the specific components, circuitry and hardware of the particular digital image printing system, different data management and processing is required for the various characteristics. For example, within ink jet digital image printing systems, these varying characteristics include, among other things, number of ink jet nozzles, the mechanical separation between the ink jet nozzles, the number of ink jet nozzles that are fired at any given time, and the firing order of the ink jet nozzles.
A particular difficulty arises when the dealing with digital image printing systems having varying numbers of print nozzles. There is a great difficulty in applying one image data processing system across multiple platforms of digital image printing systems. This difficulty arises, among other reasons, due to the varying number of nozzles within the various digital image printing systems that employ parallel image data processing, and the parallel image data processing commonly operates on a fixed number of the image data at a given time wherein the number of the data corresponds, at least in part, to the number of ink jet nozzles within the digital image printing system.
Similar difficulty arises when the image data processing is performed in a manner that is correspondent to other physical and mechanical characteristics of the digital image printing system, in that, the data processing is inherently non-scaleable across the various digital image printing system platforms. In short, when performing image data processing in an intrinsically parallel manner, different logic circuitry is required to deal with each digital image printing system having varying physical and mechanical characteristics such as different number of ink jet nozzles. To accommodate image data processing within each of the different digital image printing systems having different physical and mechanical characteristics, additional logic circuitry is required to provide image data processing for each of the various possible digital image printing systems. This large dedication of parallel processing circuitry, for each of the possible digital image printing systems in which the image processing circuitry may be installed, greatly increases the size, and therefore the cost, of an integrated circuit used to perform these image data processing functions.
The conventional solution is to dedicate independent parallel logic circuitry to perform image data processing within digital image printing systems having various number of ink jet nozzles. For example, to design a single integrated circuit capable of integration within conventional digital image printing systems that may possess ink jet print nozzles numbers of 56, 48, and 96, three independent parallel logic circuits are cast on a single integrated circuit die to accommodate the three alternatives of ink jet nozzles. Similarly, to design a single integrated circuit capable of integration within conventional digital image printing systems that may possess ink jet print nozzles numbers of 96, 104, 192, and 208, four independent parallel logic circuits are cast on a single integrated circuit die to accommodate the three alternatives of ink jet nozzles.
Conventional digital image printing systems commonly perform a number of functions, some of which are highly computationally intensive. The conventional manner of dedicating a fixed amount of parallel logic circuitry to perform each of the functions within the digital image printing system inherently leads to unused portions of logic circuitry on a potentially significant portion of an integrated circuit. In addition, the performance of certain functions within digital image printing system require significantly more logic circuitry, at certain times, for their respective functions than for other functions. This typically results in slowed overall image data processing within the digital image printing system.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional systems will become apparent to one of skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.
Various aspects of the present invention can be found in a printer that prints digital image data. The printer uses a printer component that is a member a number of types of printer components indicative of the printer. Using printer component, the printer configures image processing logic using a processing circuit. The image processing logic is capable of supporting the various types of printer components. The processing circuit that only uses that portion of the image processing logic that corresponds to the printer component indicative of the printer.
In certain embodiments of the invention, the processing circuit selects the portion of the image processing logic. If desired, the selection of the portion of the image processing logic is done automatically. Also, this automatic selection can be performed based on the type of printer component selected.
In other embodiments of the invention, the processing circuit comprises a control state machine. If desired, the control state machine uses a control state condition that helps to determine which portion of the image processing logic is to be used to perform image data processing. The control state condition corresponds to the printer component selected from the printer components indicative of the printer. Examples of printer components used to determine the control state machine conditions include, among other things, the number of ink jet printer nozzles, the ink jet nozzle separation, the firing order of the ink jet nozzles, and other characteristics of the digital image printer including electrical processing circuitry characteristics of the digital image printer.
To assist in the configuration of the image processing logic, a bit ring register is employed. The bit ring register has a fixed number of bits. Examples of bit ring register array capable of performing the configuration of the image processing logic accompanied by the processing logic are a 4xc3x9752 bit ring register array and a dual 1xc3x97104 bit ring register array.
In certain embodiments of the invention, the printer is contained within a multi-functional peripheral. The multi-functional peripheral device is a peripheral device containing a plurality of internal devices wherein each of the devices operates either independently or cooperatively to process the plurality of image data. Alternatively, the printer is contained within a stand alone device performing primarily digital image printing. The stand alone device interfaces with additional peripheral devices, including a computing device, if desired.
Other aspects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.